Process Identification and Analysis of Pilot Process

Your Learning Team represents a group of employees or managers in the organization and has been selected to run a pilot process improvement team.

Continuing with the previously selected organization, prepare a thorough paper in which you choose a specific process for improvement in your selected organization. Include the following items in your paper:
a. A description of the process targeted for improvement
b. A flow chart of the process (in its current state) to be analyzed
c. Quality tools that you would recommend using to collect and present data from this type of process.
d. Conclude your paper by providing recommendations for process improvement strategies for your selected process. Be sure to include a discussion of how your quality improvement strategy is linked to the strategic goals of the organization.

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Address the following deliverables:
a) A description of the chosen process
b) An "As-Is" flow chart of the process to be analyzed.
c) Describe the relationship of the process to the organization's strategic plan.
d) Identify the internal and external customers that are currently impacted by the process that would benefit from the process improvement.
e) Identify the most appropriate Quality Management tool that can be used to collect and present data on the process improvement changes
f) Utilize your selected quality tool to analyze your process and identify process improvement opportunities.
g) Estimate the level of improvement that could be realized and the value of implementing this process improvement.
h. Finally, discuss your findings from the simulation activity and assess relevance to your process improvement project.

Riordan Manufacturing is a leader in the plastics industry and considered among the Fortune 1000 companies. With offices throughout the United States and locations overseas, Riordan employs approximately 10,000 employees. Production is divided among three plants: plastic beverage containers in Albany, Georgia; custom plastic parts in Pontiac, Michigan; and plastic fan parts in Hangzhou, China. The Research and Development department of the company is conducted at corporate headquarters in San Jose, California. Riordan's major customers consist of automotive parts manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, the Department of Defense, beverage makers and bottlers, and appliance manufacturers (Scenario: Riordan manufacturing, 2007).
Quality Improvement process
At Riordan, the mission statement identifies its goals as it apply to the company's vision, to its dedication to customer relationships, and to its employees. Knowing this, Riordan has implemented a strategic plan to deliver a quality product that customers will find appealing and want to buy . Further, its goal is to provide total customer satisfaction to its consumers by introducing innovative products. This improvement process will be a step towards achieving the objectives.
Analyzing a process helps in identifying key issues or problems or bottlenecks in the process that in turn, affects the overall operation and product and or service quality. Thus, such analysis helps to identify and subsequently eliminate or reduce problems or bottlenecks. No matter what the business processes are, whether they are for order entry, a production process, an analytical process, or something else, they need to be reviewed regularly. These reviews will tell if the processes are adapted to the business activities and in particular, if the systems handling the processes are developed properly for this work. The reviews will tell, on a more detailed ...

Solution Summary

This solution of 1,421 words discusses Riordan Manufacturing and advises a process for improvement which includes a description, flow chart, quality tools for data collection, quality improvement strategy and strategic goals. All references used are included.